Mosbacher Guidelines on Turtles Scored : Wildlife Service Calls Commerce Dept. Protection Plan Inadequate

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a highly critical letter, has charged that Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher made a serious error in allowing shrimpers to trawl without using devices that allow endangered sea turtles to escape from the nets.

The letter, signed by Acting Deputy Director Richard Smith, called a new set of interim shrimping guidelines by Mosbacher “inadequate” and said he believed they would “further threaten the survival of the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Commerce Department, which oversees commercial fishing in U.S. waters, said shrimpers were flagrantly violating the interim guidelines.

The new rules call for shrimpers either to use the escape hatch devices or haul in their nets every 105 minutes to check for stranded sea turtles. But Brian Gorman, the Commerce spokesman, said the U.S. Coast Guard had sighted 409 shrimpers violating the time limits as of last Friday. Of 64 vessels that were stopped, only three were using the devices that would free the turtles.

“They are certainly doing themselves a disservice,” said Gorman. “We wanted a system in place that would protect turtles and that the shrimpers would embrace.”

In another arena, environmentalists applauded the Fish and Wildlife Service letter, saying that it only bolstered their contention that Mosbacher was making a mistake in what they see as pandering to the shrimping industry.

“We are very pleased by it, principally because it makes all the arguments that we’ve made--that, biologically, tow time fishing is unsound and could lead to the extinction of the species and, secondly, that the enforcement is difficult,” said Steve Moyer of the National Wildlife Federation.

Shrimpers Protested

The furor over what are known as turtle excluder devices, or TEDs, erupted a month ago when shrimpers blockaded ports along the Gulf of Mexico to protest the use of TEDs, which were about to become mandatory after more than 10 years of study and negotiations.

Mosbacher, in reply to the blockade and at the urging of Gulf Coast congressmen, at first said the devices would not have to be used for the next three months, the height of the shrimping season. But a federal judge in Washington said Mosbacher had no right to suspend the regulations designed to protect the turtles. In reply to that, Mosbacher set up the interim guidelines that will be in effect until Sept. 7, when he will issue permanent rules regarding sea turtle protection.

The Fish and Wildlife Service letter is only one of about 1,000 letters received by the Commerce Department during the comment period before the permanent rules are enacted. Gorman said all but a few favored use of the turtle escape hatches. Shrimpers have claimed they lose as much as 40% of their catch because of the TEDS, a figure disputed by both the government and environmentalists.

In the course of the sea turtle controversy, Mosbacher’s own scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service urged him not to balk at ordering the use of turtle excluder devices. When that was leaked to the press, an internal memo was circulated throughout the fisheries service threatening termination if employees discuss internal documents with reporters.

“This incident demonstrates a degree of untrustworthiness and unreliability that, according to departmental regulations, could warrant removal from the federal service,” the memo said.